About 1.3 million people in the Lunar Heartlands are initiated into one of the cults of the Lunar Way. About 1.8 million people in the same area are initiated into tradition Solar religion cults including Oria, Lodril, and Oslira. Most people freely offer worship (as lay members) to both, and the ruler of the Solar religion (Yelm) is associated with the Lunar Way.
Yelm is the key lynchpin for both pantheons. Associated with the Red Goddess, he is the undisputed ruler of the Solar gods. As a result, the Solar religion functions harmoniously within the Lunar Empire.
There’s another half million people in the Lunar Heartlands who are initiated into other religions, such as the Lightbringers, Spolite and Pelandan cults, various spirit cults, etc. These cults are more likely to have rabble-rousers and malcontents than the Solar cultists.
Yelm is the Emperor of the Gods, and the God of Emperors. The Emperor of Peloria is Moonson, the Red Emperor, son of the Red Goddess, who is closely related to Yelm (through her) and who has served as his (and her) High Priest for the last 400 years or thereabouts, usually with the enthusiastic consent of the peoples of the former Dara Happan Empire (now subsumed in the heartlands of the greater Lunar Empire).
The Lunars say you should obey Moonson because he’s the Emperor; the Yelmic types say you should obey Moonson because he’s the Emperor; and many of these are the same people.
What Sedenya does on a cosmic scale (transforming all of creation, one liberated mind at a time) is orthogonal to all that nonsense. She is *far* more important. And yet, from a Yelmic perspective, she is also largely irrelevant. “Moonson commands, and we obey.”
I agree with Nick’s summary. Yelm accepted Sedenya’s right to exist much earlier than Castle Blue. Yelmgatha was allied with the Red Goddess, and she was seen as an avatar of the Bright One. In the day, Yelm shown, and in the night She brought light. The Red Goddess was embraced by the Yelm cult as a goddess of Light, and many worshipers of the One Sun followed her.
In fact, without Yelm’s support, it is doubtful that the Red Goddess would have succeeded in her war against the Carmanian Empire.
It is notable that when the Dara Happan Tripolis rebelled, they tried to proclaim their own emperors and failed, which suggests they never had Yelm’s support.
I’m not even sure the union does work all that well. When the Lunar Empire was in its moment of greatest crisis, the Dara Happans largely sided against it, and it was the “conquered” peoples of Carmania and Sylila who remained most strongly pro-Lunar. I think you are being completely unfair to the Dara Happans. The Dara Happans fought against Sheng Seleris. Glamour and Raibanth never fell to Sheng Seleris. And Yuthuppa did not give up without a fight. Alkoth submitted but was then liberated by Sylila.
Dara Happa On Horse was a thing – but only after Sheng Seleris had already been victorious and conquered Karasal, Kostaddi, and First Blessed. Heck, for that matter First Blessed could be said to have “largely sided against it” and for even longer than Dara Happan On A Horse was around.
Is Oslira a solar goddess? She’s a goddess worshipped as part of the Solar religion.